There were only two devices. The police found no more. They did some controlled disruptions of a few suspicious packages, but none proved to contain explosives, just bags abandoned in the panic.

They did a full sweep of the area along with sniffer dogs prior to the race which was clear, so it's highly likely that whoever planted these did so during the race and is therefore caught on camera given the sheer amount of people taking photos and videos.

*nod* I certainly hope so. Last thing we need is more Muslim panic and Sikh's getting the shit kicked out of them because people don't know any different (or, you know, people beating up innocent Muslims because they're Muslim).

@Wood, I owe you an apology. I misread and was unsure, which is why I asked.

As you can imagine, the usual circus of stupidity was (and still is) out in full force. The extreme right blaming Obama and Muslims, the left blaming the extreme right, Truthers blaming...whatever the hell is is they blame, celebrities running to twitter and a bunch of people saying "There was another bombing today in a different part of the world, but I guess you don't give a shit about that". Point being there is a lot of shit to sift through, and emotions are all pretty high anyways.

No offence, I'm pretty confused about all this myself, and since I didn't know what to say, I said as little as possible, which left the door open for mis-interpretation. And, as you said, emotions are all pretty high, as it is everytime we are reminded of how ugly and scary this world is.

I've got to say, it feels difficult to feel particularly terrorized by this terrorism when the result of tragedy is largely people banding together and working to help one another. Which isn't to lessen that a horrible thing happened, but hearing all the reports of people going out of their way to help stranded runners and other such stories really serves to me of a reminder that people are pretty decent, and it gives me hope.

@DJ - without wishing to trivialise anything, the 'pulling together' thing is why terrorism hasn't ever really worked on us here in the UK.

Terrorism works only when it causes people to change the way they live their lives.

I remember growing up in a big English city with strong military connections. At the height of the 'Troubles' our parents knew we could've been blown up on any day at any time. The Blitz combined with the IRA bombings has left the English (at least those of my age and older) with a feeling of 'That's it? That's all you've got?' which I will admit means that my reaction to this sort of thing can seem crass and insensitive.

The Brit reaction to terrorism can seem VERY alien to Americans. And for that I apologise. The 'Troubles' ended (mostly) in the debating chamber when even the most militant realised you'll never get a nation used to being fucked over to bow down through violence.

"Boston is a tough city" sounds like a soundbite, but there's truth there. It's seen shameful racial violence, economic bedshitting and urban decay, crime, corruption, and a melding of Brahmin, immigrant, and "outsider" (read: gentrification) cultures, but there's always been a solid core of us taking care of our own, by whatever metric you use for that.

In this case, it's people coming together to help one another out right now, but once the shock fades and the anger rises, it turns into defiance. Whoever did this will see the city's people at its strongest. Instead of people cowering and being fearful, that fear will turn into a great big middle finger, and we'll laugh in their faces. It'll be beautiful to see.

To be Honest I find all this chest-beating and posturing utterly ridiculous, if not a bit sad.

'Oh see what they did, but we are stronger then them, because, yadda, yadda'.

Frankly flabyo saying 'is that all you've got' to a people who had been attempting sovereignty after they killed thousands of people. What do you want more?

The correct response to violence is not more violence and the only thing hawkish attitudes will prove is that this is how we deal with problems, which is sadly the exact thing that we must understand about most of our current societies.

Basically we should either impose violence on the world writ large, or we can attempt to rid ourselves of all this bullshit, and start to address the violence that we express in every nuance, and throwaway statement.

All this makes me sad if not a little sick. There are plenty of things people could start doing to make the world a little better for everyone, but first we need to be sure of context.

In every situation, if you are in conflict with someone the first thing you need to do is prevent escalation. so when we read someones thoughts, or are about to write ourselves, think, will this help us get to some kind of dialogue or will it not, and act accordingly.

Seeing blood on the sidewalks where I used to hang out makes me a little tetchy, is all

EDIT: For the record, I meant people banding together and helping each other out, not lynching the mental defective who laid the bombs. Justice is for the cops and courts; the city needs to heal its wound, and the people will see it done with defiance and joy. That's my city.

TBH, my comments above were probably aimed at our current media, rather than either of you, I tend to come here to get away from it. I didn't mean any disrespect, but I am quite sensitive to these attitudes, and have probably been getting a bit too much of it, with regard to current news stories.

There are other personal things what have also been going on, that may have affected my tone, so I do apologize.

As more information on the origin of the alleged perpetrators is coming to light, I am concerned to note in the social media a most unfortunate misunderstanding in this respect. The Czech Republic and Chechnya are two very different entities - the Czech Republic is a Central European country; Chechnya is a part of the Russian Federation.